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100 Famous Armenians

“To Mesrop we owe the preservation of the language and literature of Armenia; but for his work, the people would have been absorbed by the Persians and Syrians, and would have disappeared like so many nations of the East.” - St. Martin

Of the military leaders in the heyday of the Armenian national liberation movement, Garegin Nzhdeh stands alone. His military savvy is only surpassed by his role as an author and a thinker whose collective works helped shape a national ideology and continue to influence the mindset of Armenian thinkers, politicians and leaders to this day.

“If we lose [Artsakh], we turn the final page of our people’s history…”

Who he was

Monte Melkonian was an Armenian-American volunteer and commander in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) War for Independence, where he died in battle. He is remembered as personifying the indomitable spirit with which Armenians achieved victory against the odds and liberated part of the historic Armenian homeland, Artsakh.

Soghomon Tehlirian assassinated Mehmet Talaat Pasha, the architect of the Armenian Genocide. After the assassination in Berlin, Tehlirian was captured, tried in a German court, found not guilty and released.

“Of all the traditions we have inherited from our forefathers, the most illustrious, the most vivid, is our beautiful, rich and excellent language, which we have to protect with concern, ferocity and verve.”

Who she was

The most famous female representative of the Zartonk movement, Zabel Yesayan played an exceptional role in establishing a new paradigm for Armenian society.